How Did American Education Transform Into Political Garbage Education?
Discover how education in America originated and created masterful learning centers; and then became destroyed by the liberal and homosexual
community. Track through the education
timeline from 1600 AD to 2000 AD and witness for yourself the actual
transformation of America’s public schools becoming political garbage dumps.
1607 – The first permanent English settlement in North
America is established by the Virginia Company at Jamestown
in what is now the state of Virginia.
1620 - The Mayflower arrives at Cape
Cod, bringing the "Pilgrims" who establish the Plymouth
Colony. Many of the Pilgrims are Puritans who had fled religious persecution in
England.
Their religious views come to dominate education in the New
England colonies.
1635 - The first Latin
Grammar School (Boston Latin
School) is established.
Latin Grammar Schools are designed for sons of certain social classes who are
destined for leadership positions in church, state, or the courts.
1635 - The first "free school" in Virginia opens. However,
education in the Southern colonies is more typically provided at home by
parents or tutors.
1636 - Harvard College, the first higher education
institution in what is now the United States, is established in Newtowne (now
Cambridge), Massachusetts.
1638 - The first printing press in the American Colonies is
set up at Harvard
College.
1640 - Henry Dunster becomes President of Harvard College.
He teaches all the courses himself!
1642 - The Massachusetts Bay School Law is passed. It
requires that parents assure their children know the principles of religion and
the capital laws of the commonwealth.
1647 - The Massachusetts Law of 1647, also known as the Old
Deluder Satan Act, is passed. It decrees that every town of at least 50
families hire a schoolmaster who would teach the town's children to read and
write and that all towns of at least 100 families should have a Latin grammar
school master who will prepare students to attend Harvard College.
1690 - John Locke publishes his Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, which conveys his belief that the human mind is a tabula rasa,
or blank slate, at birth and knowledge is derived through experience, rather
than innate ideas as was believed by many at that time. Locke's views
concerning the mind and learning greatly influence American education.
1690 - The first New England Primer is printed in Boston. It becomes the
most widely-used schoolbook in New England.
1692 - The Plymouth Colony merges with the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. About 50 miles to the north, in Salem,
the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials take place.
1693 - John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education is
published, describing his views on educating upper class boys to be moral,
rationally-thinking, and reflective "young gentlemen." His ideas
regarding educating the masses are conveyed in On Working Schools, published in
1697, which focused on the importance of developing a work ethic.
1693 - The College
of William and Mary is established in Virginia. It is the
second college to open in colonial America and has the distinction of
being Thomas Jefferson's college.
1698 - The first publicly supported library in the U.S. is
established in Charles Town, South Carolina. Two years later, the General
Assembly of South Carolina passes the first public library law.
1710 - Christopher Dock, a Mennonite and one of Pennsylvania's most famous educators, arrives from Germany and later opens a school in Montgomery County, PA.
Dock's book, Schul-Ordnung (meaning school management), published in 1770, is
the first book about teaching printed in colonial America. Typical of those in the
middle colonies, schools in Pennsylvania
are established not only by the Mennonites, but by the Quakers and other
religious groups as well.
1734 – Christian von Wolff describes the human mind as
consisting of powers or faculties. Called Faculty Psychology, this doctrine
holds that the mind can best be developed through "mental discipline"
or tedious drill and repetition of basic skills and the eventual study of
abstract subjects such as classical
philosophy, literature, and languages. This viewpoint greatly influences
American education throughout the 19th Century and beyond.
1743 - Benjamin Franklin forms the American Philosophical
Society, which helps bring ideas of the European Enlightenment, including those
of John Locke, to colonial America.
Emphasizing secularism, science, and human reason, these ideas clash with the
religious dogma of the day, but greatly influence the thinking of prominent
colonists, including Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
1751 - Benjamin Franklin helps to establish the first "English Academy"
in Philadelphia
with a curriculum that is both classical and modern, including such courses as
history, geography, navigation, surveying, and modern as well as classical
languages. The academy ultimately becomes the University of Pennsylvania.
1752 - St. Matthew Lutheran School, one of the first
Lutheran "charity schools" in North America, is founded in New York City by Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, after whom Muhlenberg College
in Allentown Pennsylvania is named.
1754 - The French and Indian War begins in colonial America as the
French and their Indian allies fight the English for territorial control.
1762 - Swiss-born Jean-Jacques Rousseau's book, Emile, ou
l'education, which describes his views on education, is published. Rousseau's
ideas on the importance early childhood are in sharp contrast with the
prevailing views of his time and influence not only contemporary philosophers,
but also 20th-Century American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey.
1763 - The French are defeated, and the French and Indian
War ends with the Treaty of Paris. It gives most French territory in North
America to England.
1766 - The Moravians, a protestant denomination from central
Europe, establish the village of Salem in North
Carolina. Six years later (1772), they found a school
for girls, which later becomes Salem
College, a liberal arts
college for women with a current enrollment of approximately 1100.
1775 - The
Revolutionary War begins.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Continental
Congress on July 4th. Written by Thomas Jefferson, The document serves notice
to King George III and the rest of the world that the American Colonies no
longer considered themselves part of the British Empire.
1779 – Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational
system, with different tracks for "the laboring and the learned."
1783 - The Revolutionary War officially ends with the
signing of the Treaty of Paris, which recognizes U.S.
independence and possession of all land east of the Mississippi
except the Spanish colony of Florida
1783 to 1785 - Because of his dissatisfaction with English
textbooks of the day, Noah Webster writes A Grammatical Institute of the
English Language , consisting of three volumes: a spelling book, a grammar
book, and a reader. They become very widely used throughout the United States.
In fact, the spelling volume, later renamed the American Spelling Book and
often called the Blue-Backed Speller, has never been out of print!
1784 - The Ordinance of 1784 divides the Western territories
(north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi)
into ten separate territories that would eventually become states and have the
same rights as the thirteen original states.
1785 - The Land Ordinance of 1785 specifies that the western
territories are to be divided into townships made up of 640-acre sections, one
of which was to be set aside "for the maintenance of public schools."
1787 - The Constitutional Convention assembles in Philadelphia. Later that
year, the constitution is endorsed by the Confederation Congress (the body that
governed from
1781 until the ratification of the U.S. Constitution) and
sent to state legislatures for ratification. The document does not include the
words education or school.
1787 - The Northwest Ordinance is enacted by the
Confederation Congress. It provides a plan for western expansion and bans
slavery in new states. Specifically recognizing the importance of education,
Act 3 of the document begins, "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being
necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be encouraged." Perhaps of more of
practical importance, it stipulates that a section of land in every township of
each new state be reserved for the support of education.
1787 - The Young Ladies Academy
opens in Philadelphia and becomes the first
academy for girls in America.
1788 - The U. S. Constitution is ratified by the required
number of states.
1791 - The Bill of Rights is passed by the first Congress of
the new United States. No
mention is made of education in any of the amendments. However, the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution states that powers not delegated to the federal
government "are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the
people." Thus, education becomes a function of the state rather than the
federal government.
1801 - James Pillans invents the blackboard.
1812-1815 - The War of 1812, sometimes called the
"Second War of Independence," occurs for multiple reasons, including U.S. desires for territorial expansion and
British harassment of U.S.
merchant ships. The war begins with an
unsuccessful invasion of Canada
by U.S.
forces. Though the Treaty of Ghent, signed on December 24, 1814, supposedly
ends the war, the final battle actually takes place January 8, 1815 with U.S. forces defeating the British at New Orleans.
1817 - The Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb
Persons opens. It is the first permanent school for the deaf in the U.S. Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc are the school's co-founders. In 1864,
Thomas Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, helps to start Gallaudet University, the first college
specifically for deaf students.
1821 - The first public high school,
Boston English
High School, opens .
1823 - Catherine Beecher founds the Hartford Female
Seminary, a private school for girls in Hartford,
Connecticut. She goes on to found
more schools and become a prolific writer. Her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
an influential abolitionist, is the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
1827 - The state of Massachusetts
passes a law requiring towns of more than 500 families to have a public high
school open to all students.
1829 - The New England Asylum for the Blind, now the Perkins School
for the Blind, opens in Massachusetts,
becoming the first school in the U.S. for children with visual
disabilities.
1836 - The first of William Holmes McGuffey's readers is
published. Their secular tone sets them apart from the Puritan texts of the
day. The McGuffey Readers, as they came to be known, are among the most
influential textbooks of the 19th Century.
1837 - Horace Mann becomes Secretary of the newly formed
Massachusetts State Board of Education. A visionary educator and proponent of
public (or "free") schools, Mann works tirelessly for increased
funding of public schools and better training for teachers. As Editor of the
Common School Journal, his belief in the importance of free, universal public
education gains a national audience. He resigns his position as Secretary in
1848 to take the Congressional seat vacated by the death of John Quincy Adams
and later becomes the first president of Antioch College.
1837 - Eighty students arrive at Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary, the first college for women in the U.S. Its founder/president is Mary
Lyon.
1837 - The African Institute (later called the Institute for
Colored Youth) opens in Cheyney,
Pennsylvania. Now called Cheyney University, it the oldest institution of
higher learning for African Americans.
1839 - The first state funded school specifically for
teacher education (then known as "normal" schools) opens in Lexington, Massachusetts.
1848 - Samuel Gridley Howe helps establish the Experimental School
for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, the first school of its kind in the
U.S.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell graduates from Geneva Medical
College, becoming the
first woman to graduate from medical school. She later becomes a pioneer in the
education of women in medicine.
1851 - The New York State Asylum for Idiots opens.
1852 - Massachusetts
enacts the first mandatory attendance law. By 1885, 16 states have
compulsory-attendance laws, but most of those laws are sporadically enforced at
best. All states have them by 1918.
1853 - Pennsylvania begins
funding the Pennsylvania
Training School for
Feeble-Minded Children, a private school for children with intellectual
disabilities.
1854 -The Boston Public Library opens to the public. It is
the first major tax-supported free library in the U.S.
1854 - Ashmun Institute, now Lincoln University,
is founded on October 12, and as Horace Mann Bond, the university's eighth
president states in his book, Education for Freedom: A History of Lincoln
University, it becomes the "first institution anywhere in the world to
provide higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African
descent." The university's many distinguished alumni include Langston
Hughes and Thurgood Marshall.
1856 - The first kindergarten in the U.S. is started in Watertown, Wisconsin,
founded by Margarethe Schurz. Four years later, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody opens
the first "formal" kindergarten in Boston, MA.
1857 - The National Teachers Association (now the National
Education Association) is founded by forty-three educators in Philadelphia.
1859 - Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species is published
on November 24, introducing his theory that species evolve through the process
of natural selection, and setting the stage for the controversy surrounding
teaching the theory of evolution in public schools that persists to this day.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln, an anti-slavery Republican, is
elected president.
1861 - The U.S. Civil War begins when South Carolina secedes from the union and
along with 10 other states forms the Confederate States of American. The
shooting begins when Fort
Sumter is attacked on
April 12. With the exception of the First Morrill act of 1862, educational
progress is essentially put on hold until the war's end.
1862 - The First Morrill Act, also known as the "Land
Grant Act" becomes law. It donates public lands to states, the sale of
which will be used for the "endowment, support, and maintenance of at
least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other
scientific and classical studies and including military tactics, to teach such
branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in
order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes
in the several pursuits and professions in life." Many prominent state
universities can trace their roots to this forward-thinking legislation.
1863 - President Lincoln signs the "Emancipation
Proclamation" on January 1.
1865 - The 13th Amendment is passed, abolishing slavery.
1865 - The Civil War ends with Lee's surrender at Appomattox
Courthouse. Much of the south, including its educational institutions, is left
in disarray. Many schools are closed. Even before the war, public education in
the south was far behind that in the north. The physical devastation left by
the war as well as the social upheaval and poverty that follow exacerbate this
situation.
1865 - Abraham Lincoln is assassinated, and Andrew Johnson,
a southern Democrat and advocate of state's rights, becomes President.
1866 - The 14th Amendment is passed by Congress as one of
the reconstruction amendments. If ratified by three-fourths of the states, it
would give all persons born or naturalized in the United States citizenship and equal
protection under the law.
1867 - The Department of Education is created in order to
help states establish effective school systems.
1867 - After hearing of the desperate situation facing
schools in the south, George Peabody funds the two-million-dollar Peabody
Education Fund to aid public education in southern states.
1867 - Howard University is established in Washington D.C.
to provide education for African American youth "in the liberal arts and
sciences.” Early financial support is provided by the Freedmen's Bureau.
1867 - Christopher Sholes invents the "modern"
typewriter. Known as the Sholes Glidden, it is first manufactured by E.
Remington & Sons in 1873.
1867 & 1868 - The four Reconstruction Acts are passed
over President Andrew Johnson's veto. They divide the south into military
districts and require elections to be held with freed male slaves being allowed
to vote.
1868 -In spite of opposition by southern states, the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified and becomes law. It
guarantees privileges of citizenship including due process and equal protection
under the law including the right to vote for freed male slaves. It becomes the
basis for the rulings in Brown v. Board of Education and Pyler v. Doe as well
as many other important court cases.
1869 - Congress passes the 15th Amendment. It prohibits
states from denying male citizens over 21 (including freed slaves) the right to
vote.
1869 - Boston
creates the first public day school for the deaf.
1873 - The Panic of 1873 causes bank foreclosures, business
failures, and job loss. The economic depression that follows results in reduced
revenues for education. Southern schools are hit particularly hard, making a
bad situation even worse.
1873-The Society to Encourage Studies at Home is founded in Boston by Anna Eliot
Ticknor, daughter of Harvard professor George Ticknor. It's purpose is to allow
women the opportunity for study and enlightenment and becomes the first
correspondence school in the United
States.
1874 - The Michigan State Supreme Court rules that Kalamazoo may levy taxes
to support a public high school, setting an important precedent for similar
rulings in other states.
1875 - The Civil Rights Act is passed, banning segregation
in all public accommodations. The Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional in
1883.
1876 - Edouard Seguin becomes the first President of the
Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and
Feebleminded Persons, which evolves into the American Association on
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
1876 - Meharry Medical College
is founded in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the first medical school in
the south for African Americans.
1876 - The Dewey Decimal System, developed by Melvil Dewey
in 1873, is published and patented. The DDC is still the worlds most
widely-used library classification system.
1877 - Reconstruction formally ends as President Rutherford
B. Hayes removes the last federal troops from the south. The foundation for a
system of legal segregation and
discrimination is quickly established. Many African Americans flee the south.
1879 - The first Indian boarding school opens in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
It becomes the model for a total of 26 similar schools, all with the goal of
assimilating Indian children into the mainstream culture. The schools leave a
controversial legacy. Though some see them as a noble, albeit largely
unsuccessful experiment, many view their legacy to be one of alienation and
"cultural dislocation." The Carlisle Indian
Industrial School
closes in 1918. Famous athlete Jim Thorpe is among the school's thousands of
alumni.
1881 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first principal of
the newly-opened normal school in Tuskegee, Alabama, now Tuskegee
University.
1884 -The first practical fountain pen is patented by Lewis
Waterman.
1887 - The Hatch Act of 1887 establishes a network of
agricultural experiment stations connected to land grant universities
established under the First Morrill Act.
1889 - Jane Addams and her college friend Ellen Gates Starr
found Hull House in a Chicago,
Illinois neighborhood of recent
European immigrants. It is the first settlement house in the U.S. Included
among its many services are a kindergarten and a night school for adults. Hull
House continues to this day to offer educational services to children and
families.
1890 - The Second Morrill Act is enacted. It provides for
the "more complete endowment and support of the colleges" through the
sale of public lands, Part of this funding leads to the creation of 16
historically black land-grant colleges.
1891 - Stanford
University is founded in
1891 by former California Governor and railroad tycoon Leland Stanford in
memory of his son, Leland Jr.
1892 - Formed by the National Education Association to
establish a standard secondary school curriculum, the Committee of Ten,
recommends a college-oriented high school curriculum.
1896 - Homer Plessy, a 30-year-old African American,
challenges the state of Louisiana's
"Separate Car Act," arguing that requiring Blacks to ride in separate
railroad cars violates the 13th and 14th
Amendments. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Louisiana law stating in the majority
opinion that the intent of the 14th Amendment "had not been intended to
abolish distinctions based on color." Thus, the Supreme Court ruling in
the case of Plessy v. Ferguson
makes "separate but equal" policies legal. It becomes a legal
precedent used to justify many other segregation laws, including "separate
but equal" education.
1898 - The Spanish American War makes Theodore Roosevelt a
hero, and the United States
becomes an international power.
1900 - The Association of American Universities is founded
to promote higher standards and put U.S. universities on an equal
footing with their European counterparts.
1901 - Joliet Junior College, in Joliet, Illinois,
opens. It is the first public community college in the U.S.
1903 - Ivan Pavlov reads his paper, The Experimental
Psychology and Psychopathology of Animals, at the 14th International Medical
Congress in Madrid,
explaining his concept of the conditioned reflex, an important component of classical
conditioning.
1904 - Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American educator,
founds the Daytona Educational and Industrial
Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida.
It merges with the Cookman Institute in 1923 and becomes a coeducational high
school, which eventually evolves into Bethune-Cookman
College, now Bethune-Cookman University.
1905 - Alfred Binet's article, "New Methods for the
Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals," is published in France. It
describes his work with Theodore Simon in the development of a measurement
instrument that would identify students with mental retardation. The
Binet-Simon Scale, as it is called, is an effective means of measuring
intelligence.
1905- The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching is founded. It is charted by an act of Congress in 1906, the same year
the Foundation encouraged the adoption of a standard system for equating
"seat time" (the amount of time spent in a class) to high school
credits. Still in use today, this system came to be called the "Carnegie
Unit." Other important achievements of the Foundation during the first
half of the 20th Century include the "landmark 'Flexner Report' on medical
education, the development of the Graduate Record Examination, the founding of
the Educational Testing Service, and the creation of the Teachers Insurance
Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF)." See the Carnegie Foundation's
home page for additional information.
1909 - Educational reformer Ella Flagg Young becomes superintendent
of the Chicago Public Schools. She is the first female superintendent of a
large city school system. One year later she is elected president of the
National Education Association.
1911 - The first Montessori school in the U.S. opens in Tarrytown, New York.
Two years later (1913), Maria Montessori visits the U.S.,
and Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel found the Montessori Educational
Association at their Washington,
DC, home
1913 - Edward Lee Thorndike's book, Educational Psychology:
The Psychology of Learning, is published. It describes his theory that human
learning involves habit formation, or connections between stimuli (or
situations as Thorndike preferred to call them) and responses (Connectionism).
He believes that such connections are strengthened by repetition ("Law of
Exercise") and achieving satisfying consequences ("Law of
Effect"). These ideas, which contradict traditional faculty psychology and
mental discipline, come to dominate American educational psychology for much of
the Twentieth Century and greatly influence American educational practice.
1914 - The Smith-Lever Act establishes a system of
cooperative extension services connected to land grant universities and
provides federal funds for extension activities.
1916 - Louis M. Terman and his team of Stanford University
graduate students complete an American version of the Binet-Simon Scale. The
Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale becomes a widely-used individual
intelligence test, and along with it, the concept of the intelligence quotient
(or IQ) is born. The Fifth Edition of the Stanford-Binet Scales is among the
most popular individual intelligence tests today. For additional information on
the history of intelligence testing, see A.C.E. Detailed History of the I.Q. Test.
1916 -The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is founded.
So is the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
1916 - John Dewey's Democracy and Education. An Introduction
to the Philosophy of Education is published. Dewey's views help advance the
ideas of the "progressive education movement." An outgrowth of the
progressive political movement, progressive education seeks to make schools
more effective agents of democracy. His daughter, Evelyn Dewey, coauthors
Schools of To-morrow with her father, and goes on to write several books on her
own.
1916 - The Bureau of Educational Experiments is founded in New York City by Lucy
Sprague Mitchell with the purpose of studying child development and children's
learning. It opens a laboratory nursery school in 1918 and in 1950 becomes the
Bank Street College of Education. Its School for Children is now "an
independent demonstration school for Bank
Street College."
This same year (1916), Mrs. Frank R. Lillie helps establish what would become
the University of Chicago Nursery School.
1917 - The Smith-Hughes Act passes, providing federal
funding for agricultural and vocational education. It is repealed in 1997.
1917 - As the U.S. enters W.W.I the army has no
means of screening the intellectual ability of its recruits. Robert Yerkes,
then President of the American Psychological Association and an army officer,
becomes Chairman of the Committee on Psychological Examination of Recruits. The
committee, which includes Louis Terman, has the task of developing a group
intelligence test. He and his team of psychologists design the Army Alpha and
Beta tests. Though these tests have little impact on the war, they lay the
groundwork for future standardized tests.
1918 - World War I ends on 11 November.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles
is signed on 28 June. It officially ends the state of war between Germany and the
Allied Powers. However, the terms of the treaty are tragically flawed, and
instead of bringing lasting peace, it plants the seeds for World War II, which
begins twenty years later.
1919 - The Progressive Education Association is founded with
the goal of reforming American education.
1919 - All states have laws providing funds for transporting
children to school.
1920 - John B. Watson
and his assistant Rosalie Rayner conduct their experiments using classical
conditioning with children. Often referred to as the Little Albert study,
Watson and Rayner's work showed that children could be conditioned to fear
stimuli of which they had previously been unafraid. This study could not be
conducted today because of ethical safeguards currently in place.
1920 - The 19th Amendment is ratified, giving women the
right to vote.
1921 - Louis Terman launches a longitudinal study of
"intellectually superior" children at Stanford University.
The study continues into the 21st Century!
1922 - The International Council for Exceptional Children is
founded at Columbia
University Teachers
College.
1922 - Abigail Adams
Eliot, with help from Mrs. Henry Greenleaf Pearson, establishes the Ruggles Street
Nursery School in Roxbury,
MA, one of the first educational nursery
schools in the U.S.
It becomes the Eliot-Pearson Children's School and is now affiliated with the
Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University.
1924 - Max Wertheimer describes the principles of Gestalt
Theory to the Kant Society in Berlin.
Gestalt Theory, with its emphasis on learning through insight and grasping the
whole concept, becomes important later in the 20th Century in the development
of cognitive views of learning and teaching.
1925 - Tennessee
vs. John Scopes ("the Monkey Trial") captures national attention as
John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, is charged with the heinous crime
of teaching evolution. The trial ends in Scopes' conviction. The evolution
versus creationism controversy persists to this day.
1926 - The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is first
administered. It is based on the Army Alpha test.
1929 - Jean Piaget's The Child's Conception of the World is
published. His theory of cognitive development becomes an important influence
in American developmental psychology and education.
1929 - The Great Depression begins with the stock market
crash in October. The U.S.
economy is devastated. Public education funding suffers greatly, resulting in
school closings, teacher layoffs, and lower salaries.
1931 - Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove
(California) School District becomes the first successful school desegregation
court case in the United States, as the local court forbids the school district
from placing Mexican-American children in a separate
"Americanization" school.
1932 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president and
begins bold efforts to initiate his New Deal and spur economic recovery. His
wife, Eleanor, becomes a champion of human rights and forever transforms the
role of American First Lady.
1935 - Congress authorizes the Works Progress
Administration. Its purpose is to put the unemployed to work on public projects,
including the construction of hundreds of school buildings.
1938 - Ladislas Biro and his brother Georg patent the
ballpoint pen.
1939 - Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Columbia University's
Teachers College, organizes a national conference on student transportation. It
results in the adoption of standards for the nation's school buses, including
the shade of yellow.
1939 - The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (first called
the Wechsler- Bellevue Intelligence Scale) is developed by David Wechsler. It
introduces the concept of the "deviation IQ," which calculates IQ
scores based on how far subjects' scores differ (or deviate) from the average
(mean) score of others who are the same age, rather than calculating them with
the ratio (MA/CA multiplied by 100) system. Wechsler intelligence tests,
particularly the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are still widely
used in U.S.
schools to help identify students needing special education.
1941 - The U.S.
enters World War II after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
on December 7. During the next four years, much of the country's resources go
to the war effort. Education is put on the back burner as many young men quit
school to enlist; schools are faced with personnel problems as teachers and
other employees enlist, are drafted, or leave to work in defense plants; school
construction is put on hold.
1944 - The G.I. Bill officially known as the Servicemen's
Readjustment Act of 1944, is signed by FDR on June 22. Some 7.8 million World
War II veterans take advantage of the GI Bill during the seven years benefits
are offered. More than two-million attend colleges or universities, nearly
doubling the college population. About 238,000 become teachers. Because the law
provides the same opportunity to every veteran, regardless of background, the
long-standing tradition that a college education was only for the wealthy is
broken.
1945 - World War II ends on August 15 (VJ Day) with victory
over Japan.
1946 - At one minute after midnight on January 1st, Kathleen
Casey-Kirschling is born, the first of nearly 78 million baby boomers,
beginning a generation that results in unprecedented school population growth
and massive social change. She becomes a teacher!
1946 - In the landmark court case of Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education, the U. S. District Court in Los
Angeles rules that educating children of Mexican descent in
separate facilities is unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools and
setting an important precedent for Brown vs. Board of Education.
1946 - The computer age begins as the Electronic Numerical
Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first vacuum-tube computer, is built for
the U.S.
military by Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.
1946 - With thousands of veterans returning to college, The
President's Commission on Higher Education is given the task of reexamining the
role of colleges and universities in post-war America. The first volume of its report, often
referred to as the Truman Commission Report, is issued in 1947 and recommends
sweeping changes in higher education, including doubling college enrollments by
1960 and extending free public education through the establishment of a network
of community colleges. This latter recommendation comes to fruition in the
1960s, during which community college enrollment more than triples.
1946 - Recognizing "the need for a permanent
legislative basis for a school lunch program," the 79th Congress approves
the National School Lunch Act.
1947 - In the case of Everson v. Board of Education, the
U.S. Supreme Court rules by a 5-4 vote that a New Jersey law which allowed
reimbursements of transportation costs to parents of children who rode public
transportation to school, even if their children attended Catholic schools, did
NOT violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
1948 - In the case of McCollum v. Board of Education, the
Supreme Court rules that schools cannot allow "released time" during
the school day which allows students to participate in religious education in
their public school classrooms.
1950 - Public Law 81-740 grants a federal charter to the FFA
and recognizes it as an integral part of the program of vocational agriculture.
The law is revised in 1998 and becomes Public Law 105-225.
1952 - Public Law 550, the Veterans Readjustment Assistance
Act of 1952, modifies the G.I. Bill for veterans of the Korean War.
1953 - Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner's Science and Human
Behavior is published. His form of behaviorism (operant conditioning), which
emphasizes changes in behavior due to reinforcement, becomes widely accepted
and influences many aspects of American education
1954 - On May 17th, the U.S. Supreme Court announces its
decision in the case of Brown v. Board. of Education of Topeka, ruling that
"separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," thus
overturning its previous ruling in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Brown v. Board of Education is actually a combination of five cases from
different parts of the country. It is a historic first step in the long and
still unfinished journey toward equality in U.S. education.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a Montgomery,
Alabama seamstress, refuses to
give up her seat on the bus to a Caucasian passenger and is subsequently
arrested and fined. The Montgomery
bus boycott follows, giving impetus to the Civil Rights Movement. A year later,
in the case of Browder v. Gale, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregated
seating on buses unconstitutional.
1956 – The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The
Cassification of Educational Goals; Handbook I: Cognitive Domain is published.
Often referred to simply as “Bloom’s Taxonomy” because of its primary author,
Benjamin S. Bloom, the document actually has four coauthors (M.D. Engelhart,
E.J. Furst, W.H. Hill, and David Krathwohl). Still widely used today, Bloom’s
Taxonomy divides the cognitive domain into six levels: knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis. Handbook II: Affective Domain,
edited by Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia, is published in 1964. Taxonomies for the
psychomotor domain have been published by other writers.
1957 - The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is voted into law in
spite of Strom Thurmond's filibuster. Essentially a voting-rights bill, it is
the first civil rights legislation since reconstruction and is a precursor to
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
1957 - Federal troops enforce integration in Little Rock, Arkansas as
the Little Rock 9 enroll at Central High School.
1957 - The Soviet Union
launches Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth. Occurring in the
midst of the Cold War, it represents both a potential threat to American
national security as well as a blow to national pride.
1958 - At least partially because of Sputnik, science and
science education become important concerns in the U.S., resulting in the
passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) which authorizes increased
funding for scientific research as well as science, mathematics, and foreign
language education.
1959 - The ACT Test is first administered.
1960 -First grader Ruby Bridges is the first African
American to attend William Frantz Elementary School
in New Orleans.
She becomes a class of one as parents remove all Caucasian students from the
school.
1962 - First published in 1934, Lev Vygotsky's book, Thought
and Language is introduced to the English-speaking world. Though he lives to be
only 38, Vygotsky's ideas regarding the social nature of learning provide
important foundational principles for contemporary social constructivist
theories. He is perhaps best known for his concept of "Zone of Proximal
Development."
1962 - In the case of Engel v. Vitale, the U. S. Supreme
Court rules that the state of New
York's Regents prayer violates the First Amendment.
The ruling specifies that "state officials may not compose an official
state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the State
at the beginning of each school day. . . "
1963 - In the cases of School District of Abington Township,
Pennsylvania v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the U. S. Supreme Court
reaffirms Engel v. Vitale by ruling that "no state law or school board may
require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord's Prayer be recited
in the public schools . . . even if individual students may be excused from
attending or participating . . ."
1963 - Samuel A. Kirk uses the term "learning
disability" at a Chicago
conference on children with perceptual disorders. The term sticks, and in 1964,
the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, now the Learning
Disabilities Association of America, is formed. Today, nearly one-half of all
students in the U.S.
who receive special education have been identified as having learning disabilities.
1963 - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Schools
close as the nation mourns its loss. Lyndon Johnson becomes president.
1963 - In response to the large number of Cuban immigrant
children arriving in Miami after the Cuban Revolution, Coral Way Elementary
School starts the "nation's first
bilingual public school in the modern era."
1964 - The Civil Rights Act becomes law. It prohibits
discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
1965 - The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is
passed on April 9. Part of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," it
provides federal funds to help low-income students, which results in the
initiation of educational programs such as Title I and bilingual education.
1965 - The Higher Education Act is signed at Southwest Texas
State College on November 8. It increases federal aid to higher education and
provides for scholarships, student loans, and establishes a National Teachers
Corps.
1965 - Project Head Start, a preschool education program for
children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer program. Part
of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this day as the
longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S.
1965 - Lyndon Johnson signs the Immigration Act of 1965,
also known as the Hart-Cellar Act, on October.3rd. It abolishes the National
Origins Formula and results in unprecedented numbers of Asians and Latin
Americans immigrating to the United States,
making America's
classrooms much more diverse.
1966 - The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study, often
called the Coleman Report because of its primary author James S. Coleman, is
conducted in response to provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its
conclusion that African American children benefit from attending integrated
schools sets the stage for school "busing" to achieve desegregation.
1966 - Jerome Bruner's Toward a Theory of Instruction is
published. His views regarding learning help to popularize the cognitive
learning theory as an alternative to behaviorism.
1966 - Public Law 358, the Veterans Readjustment Benefits
Act of 1966, provides not only educational benefits, but also home and farm
loans as well as employment counseling and placement services for Vietnam
veterans. More than 385,000 troops, serve in Vietnam during 1966. From
1965-1975, more than nine million American military personnel are on active
military duty, about 3.4 million of whom serve in Southeast
Asia.
1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Nobel Prize winner and leader
of the American Civil Rights Movement, is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee
on April 4th. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, observed on the third Monday
of January, celebrates his "life and legacy."
1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, also know as Title VII,
becomes law. After many years of controversy, the law is repealed in 2002 and
replaced by the No Child Left Behind Act.
1968 - The "Monkey Trial" revisited! In the case
of Epperson et al. v. Arkansas, the U.S. supreme Court finds the state of Arkansas' law
prohibiting the teaching of evolution in a public school or university
unconstitutional.
1968 - Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, an African American
educator, becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the U.S.
Congress.
1968 - McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington
becomes the nation's first magnet school.
1969 - Herbert R. Kohl's book, The Open Classroom, helps to
promote open education, an approach emphasizing student-centered classrooms and
active, holistic learning. The conservative back-to-the-basics movement of the
1970s begins at least partially as a backlash against open education. .
1969 - On April 30th, the number of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam stands
at 543,482, the most at any time during the war. College enrollments swell as
many young men seek student deferments from the draft; anti-war protests become
commonplace on college campuses, and grade inflation begins as professors
realize that low grades may change male students' draft status.
1969 - ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network),
the first "packet-switching" network and precursor of the internet,
is created by the U.S. Defense Department. Its first message is sent October
29, at about 10:30 P.M. For alternate perspectives on the origins of the
internet, see So, who really invented the internet?
1970 - Four students are killed by Ohio National Guard
troops on May 4th during an anti-war protest at Kent
State University
in Ohio.
1970 - In his controversial book, Deschooling Society, Ivan
Illich sharply criticizes traditional schools and calls for the end of
compulsory school attendance.
1970 - Jean Piaget's book, The Science of Education, is
published. His Learning Cycle model helps to popularize discovery-based
teaching approaches, particularly in the sciences.
1970 - The case of Diana v. California State Board results
in new laws requiring that children referred for possible special education
placement be tested in their primary language.
1971 - In the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded
Children (PARC) v. Pennsylvania,
the federal court rules that students with mental retardation are entitled to a
free public education.
1971 - Michael Hart, founder of Project Guttenberg, invents
the e-Book.
1972 - Texas Instruments introduces the first in its line of
electronic hand-held calculators, the TI-2500 Data Math. TI becomes an industry
leader known around the world.
1972 - The Indian Education Act becomes law and establishes
"a comprehensive approach to meeting the unique needs of American Indian
and Alaska Native students"
1972 - The case of Mills v. the Board of Education of
Washington, D.C. extends the PARC v. Pennsylvania
ruling to other students with disabilities and requires the provision of
"adequate alternative educational services suited to the child's needs,
which may include special education . . ." Other similar cases
follow.
1972 - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 becomes law. Though many people associate
this law only with girl's and women's participation in sports, Title IX
prohibits discrimination based on sex in all aspects of education.
1972 - The Marland Report to Congress on gifted and talented
education is issued. It recommends a broader definition of giftedness that is
still widely accepted today.
1973 - U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War ends on January 27. More than 58,000 U.S. service
personnel are killed in action during the war. The fighting continues until
April 30, 1975 when South
Vietnam surrenders to the communist North
Vietnamese forces.
1973 - Marian Wright Edelman founds the Children's Defense
Fund, a non-profit child advocacy organization.
1973 - The Rehabilitation Act becomes law. Section 504 of
this act guarantees civil rights for people with disabilities in the context of
federally funded institutions and requires accommodations in schools including
participation in programs and activities as well as access to buildings. Today,
"504 Plans" are used to provide accommodations for students with disabilities
who do not qualify for special education or an IEP.
1974 - In the Case of Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court
rules that the failure of the San
Francisco School District
to provide English language instruction to Chinese-American students with
limited English proficiency (LEP) is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of
1964. Though the case does not require a specific approach to teaching LEP
students, it does require school districts to provide equal opportunities for
all students, including those who do not speak English.
1974 - The Equal Educational Opportunities Act is passed. It
prohibits discrimination and requires schools to take action to overcome
barriers which prevent equal protection. The legislation has been particularly
important in protecting the rights of students with limited English
proficiency..
1974 - Federal Judge Arthur Garrity orders busing of African
American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve racial
integration of public schools in Boston,
MA. White parents protest,
particularly in South Boston.
1975 - The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL
94-142) becomes federal law. It requires that a free, appropriate public
education, suited to the student's individual needs, and offered in the least
restrictive setting be provided for all "handicapped" children.
States are given until 1978 (later extended to 1981) to fully implement the
law.
1975 - The National Association of Bilingual Education is
founded.
1975 - Newsweek's December 8 cover story, "Why Johnny
Can't Write," heats up the debate about national literacy and the
back-to-the-basics movement.
1977 - Apple Computer, now Apple Inc., introduces the Apple
II, one of the first successful personal computers. It and its offspring, the
Apple IIe, become popular in schools as students begin to learn with computer
games such as Oregon Trail and Odell
Lake.
|1980 - The Refugee Act of 1980 is signed into law by
President Jimmy Carter on March 18th. Building on the Immigration Act of 1965,
it reforms immigration law to admit refugees for humanitarian reasons and
results in the resettlement of more than three-million refugees in the United States including many children who bring special
needs and issues to their classrooms.
1980 - President Jimmy Carter signs the Refugee Education
Assistance Act into law as the "Mariel Boatlift" brings thousands of
Cuban and a small number of Haitian refugees to Florida.
1980 - Ronald Reagan is elected president, ushering in a new
conservative era, not only in foreign and economic policy, but in education as
well. However, he never carries out his pledge to reduce the federal role in
education by eliminating the Department of Education, which had become a
Cabinet level agency that same year under the Carter administration..
1981 - John Holt's book, Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for
Education, adds momentum to the homeschooling movement.
1981 - IBM introduces its version of the personal computer
(PC) with its Model 5150. It's operating system is MS-DOS.
1982 - In the case of Edwards v. Aguillard, the U.S. Supreme
Court invalidates Louisiana's
"Creationism Act," which requires the teaching of creationism
whenever evolution is taught, because it violates the Establishment Clause of
the First Amendment to the Constitution.
1982 - Madeline C. Hunter's book, Mastery Teaching, is
published. Her direct instruction teaching model becomes widely used as
teachers throughout the country attend her workshops and become
"Hunterized."
1982 - In the case of Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court
rules in a 5-4 decision that Texas
law denying access to public education for undocumented school-age children
violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling also
found that school districts cannot charge tuition fees for the education of
these children.
1982 - In the case of Board of Education v. Pico, the U.S.
Supreme court rules that books cannot be removed from a school library because
school administrators deemed their content to be offensive.
1983 - The report of the National Commission on Excellence
in Education, A Nation at Risk, calls for sweeping reforms in public education
and teacher training. Among their recommendations is a forward-looking call for
expanding high school requirements to include the study of computer science.
1984 - Public Law 105-332, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational
and Technical Education Act, is passed with the goal of increasing the quality
of vocational-technical education in the U.S. It is reauthorized in 1998 and
again in 2006 as the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (PL
109-270).
1984 -The Emergency Immigrant Education Act is enacted to
provide services and offset the costs for school districts that have
unexpectedly large numbers of immigrant students.
1985 - In the case of Wallace v, Jaffree, the U.S. Supreme
Court finds that Alabama
statutes authorizing silent prayer and teacher-led voluntary prayer in public
schools violate the First Amendment.
1985 - Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first independent version
of Windows, is released, setting the stage for subsequent versions that make
MS-DOS obsolete.
1986 - Christa McAuliffe is chosen by NASA from among more
than 11,000 applicants to be the first teacher-astronaut, but her mission ends
tragically as the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after its
launch, killing McAuliffe and the other six members of the crew.
1987 - In the case of Edwards v. Aguillard, et al. the U.S.
Supreme Court strikes down a Louisiana
requiring that creation science be taught along with evolution. Will this
controversy ever be resolved?
1989 - The University
of Phoenix establishes
their "online campus," the first to offer online bachelor's and
master's degrees. It becomes the "largest private university in North America."
1990 - Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer and computer
scientist called by many the inventor of the internet, writes the first web
client-server protocol (Hypertext Translation Protocol or http), which allows
two computers to communicate. On August 6, 1991, he puts the first web site on
line from a computer at the CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear
Research) in order to facilitate information sharing among scientists. So . . .
does this mean that Al Gore didn't invent the internet after all?
1990 - Public Law 101-476, the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), renames and amends Public Law 94-142. In addition to
changing terminology from handicap to disability, it mandates transition
services and adds autism and traumatic brain injury to the eligibility list.
1990 - The Milwaukee Parental Choice program is initiated.
It allows "students, under specific circumstances, to attend at no charge,
private sectarian and nonsectarian schools located in the city of Milwaukee."
1990 - Teach for America is formed, reestablishing
the idea of a National Teachers Corps.
1990- The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990, the first
comprehensive reform since 1965, is enacted on 29 November and increases annual
immigration to 700,000 adding to the diversity of our nation and its schools.
Specific aspects of the law provide for family-sponsored visas;
employment-based visas for priority workers, skilled workers, and
"advanced professionals"; and 55,000 diversity visas "allocated
to natives of a country that has sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the United States
over the previous five years."
1991 - Minnesota
passes the first "charter school" law.
1991 - The smart board (interactive white board) is
introduced by SMART Technologies.
1992 - City Academy High School,
the nation's first charter school, opens in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1993 - Jacqueline and Martin Brooks' In Search of
Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms is published. It is one
many books and articles describing constructivism, a view that learning best
occurs through active construction of knowledge rather than its passive
reception. Constructivist learning theory, with roots such as the work of
Dewey, Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky, becomes extremely popular in the 1990s.
1993 - The Massachusetts Education Reform Act requires a
common curriculum and statewide tests (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System). As has often been the case, other states follow Massachusetts' lead and implement similar,
high-stakes testing programs.
1993 - Jones International University becomes the first
university "to exist completely online."
1994 - The Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) is
signed into law by President Bill Clinton on January 25th. It. reauthorizes the
ESEA of 1965 and includes reforms for Title I; increased funding for bilingual
and immigrant education; and provisions for public charter schools, drop-out
prevention, and educational technology.
1994 - As a backlash to illegal immigration, California voters pass Proposition 187, denying benefits,
including public education, to undocumented aliens in California. It is challenged by the ACLU and
other groups and eventually overturned.
1994 - Jim Clark and Mark Andreesan found Mosaic
Communications. The corporation is later renamed Netscape Communications. On
December 15th, they release the first commercial web browser, Mozilla 1.0. It
is available without cost to individuals and non-profit organizations. By the
summer of 1995, more than 80% of internet users are browsing with Netscape!
1994 - CompuHigh is founded. It claims to be the first
online high school.
1994-1995 - Whiteboards find their way into U.S. classrooms
in increasing numbers and begin to replace the blackboard.
1995 - Georgia
becomes the first state to offer universal preschool to all four year olds
whose parents choose to enroll them. More than half of the state's four year
olds are now enrolled.
1996 - James Banks' book, Multicultural Education:
Transformative Knowledge and Action, makes an important contribution to the
growing body of scholarship regarding multiculturalism in education..
1996 - The Oakland, California School District
sparks controversy as it proposes that Ebonics be recognized as the native
language of African American children.
1996 - President Bill Clinton signs the Illegal Immigration
Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 into law on September 30th.. It
prohibits states from offering higher education benefit based on residency
within a state (in-state tuition) to undocumented immigrants unless the benefit
is available to any U.S.
citizen or national. This law conflicts, however, with practices and laws in
several U.S.
states.
1997 - New York follows Georgia's lead
and passes legislation that will phase in voluntary pre-kindergarten classes
over a four-year period. However, preschool funding is a casualty of September
11, 2001 as New York
struggles to recover. As of 2008, about 39% of the state's four year olds,
mostly from low-income families, are enrolled.
1998 - California
voters pass Proposition 227, requiring that all public school instruction be in
English. This time the law withstands legal challenges.
1998 - The Higher Education Act is amended and reauthorized
requiring institutions and states to produce "report cards" about
teacher education (See Title II).
1998 - Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up
a workplace for their newly incorporated search engine in a Menlo Park, California
garage.
1999 - On April 20th, two Columbine
High School students go on a killing
spree that leaves 15 dead and 23 wounded at the Littleton, Colorado
school, making it the nations' deadliest school shooting incident. Though
schools tighten safety procedures as a result of the Columbine massacre, school
shootings continue to occur at an alarming rate.
2000 - Diane Ravitch's book, Left Back: A Century of Failed
School Reforms, criticizes progressive educational policies and argues for a
more traditional, academically-oriented education. Her views, which are reminiscent
of the "back to the basics" movement of the late 1970s and 1980s, are
representative of the current conservative trend in education and the nation at
large.
2000 - In yet another case regarding school prayer (Santa Fe School District v. Doe), the U.S.
Supreme Court rules that the district's policy of allowing student-led prayer
prior to football games violates the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment.
2001 - Nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four commercial
jet airliners on the morning of September 11. They crash two into the twin
towers of the World
Trade Center
and another into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashes in a rural area of Pennsylvania as
passengers try to retake it from the hijackers. A total of 2976 victims as well
as the 19 terrorists are killed. The attacks have a devastating effect on the
both U.S.
and world stock markets, result in the passage of the Patriot Act, formation of
the Department of Homeland Security, provide the impetus for two wars, and take
a lasting toll on Americans' sense of safety and well-being.
2001 - The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is
approved by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January
8, 2002. The law, which reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the
Bilingual Education Act of 1968, mandates high-stakes student testing, holds
schools accountable for student achievement levels, and provides penalties for
schools that do not make adequate yearly progress toward meeting the goals of
NCLB.
2002 - In the case of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris the U.S.
Supreme court rules that certain school voucher programs are constitutional and
do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
2002 - The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA) is formally launched as an
organization. Its goals include promoting the rights of young children and
providing information about the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood
education.
2003 - The Higher Education Act is again amended and
reauthorized, expanding access to higher education for low and middle income
students, providing additional funds for graduate studies, and increasing
accountability.
2003 - The North American Council for Online Learning
(NACOL), a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing K-12 online
education, is "launched as a formal corporate entity."
2004 - H.R. 1350, The Individuals with Disabilities
Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), reauthorizes and modifies IDEA. Changes, which
take effect on July 1, 2005, include modifications in the IEP process and procedural safeguards, increased authority
for school personnel in special education placement decisions, and alignment of
IDEA with the No Child Left Behind Act. The 2004 reauthorization also requires
school districts to use the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach as a means
for the early identification of students at risk for specific learning
disabilities. RTI provides a three-tiered model for screening, monitoring, and
providing increasing degrees of intervention using “research-based
instruction" with the overall goal of reducing the need for special
education services
2005 - In the latest incarnation of the "Monkey
Trial," the U.S. District Court of
Pennsylvania rules in the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District that
teaching "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution is a
violation of the First Amendment.
2007 - On January 1, 2007, the American Association on
Mental Retardation (AAMR) became the American Association on Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), joining the trend toward use of the term
intellectual disability in place of mental retardation.
2007 - Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student, kills two
students in a dorm and then 30 others in a classroom building at Virginia Tech University.
Fifteen others are wounded. His suicide brings the death toll to 33, making it
the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history.
2007 - In the cases of Parents involved in Community Schools
v. Seattle School District No 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of
Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that race cannot be a factor in
assigning students to high schools, thus rejecting integration plans in Seattle
and Louisville, and possibly affecting similar plans in school districts around
the nation.
2007 - Both the House and Senate pass the Fiscal Year 2008
Labor-HHS- Education appropriation bill which includes reauthorization of the
No Child Left Behind Act. However, the bill is vetoed by President Bush because
it exceeds his budget request. Attempts to override the veto fall short.
2008 - Less than one
year after the Virginia Tech massacre, former graduate student Stephen P.
Kazmierczak kills five and wounds 17 in a classroom at Northern Illinois
University. He later takes his own life.
2008 - Barack Obama defeats John McCain and is elected the
44th President of the United
States. Substantial changes in the No Child
Left Behind Act are eventually expected, but with two ongoing wars as well as
the current preoccupation with our nation's economic problems, reauthorization
of NCLB is unlikely to happen any time soon.
2009 - The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009
provides more than 90-billion dollars for education, nearly half of which goes
to local school districts to prevent layoffs and for school modernization and
repair. It includes the Race to the Top initiative, a 4.35-billion-dollar
program designed to induce reform in K-12 education. For more information on
the impact of the Recovery Act on education, go to ED.gov.
2009 - The Common Core State
Standards Initiative, "a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors
Association Center
for Best Practices (NGA
Center) and the Council
of Chief State School Officers," is launched. It is expected that many,
perhaps most, states will adopt them.
2009 - Quest to Learn (Q2L), the first school to teach
primarily through game-based learning, opens in September in New York City with a class of sixth graders
There are plans to add a grade each year until the school serves students in
grades six through twelve.
2010 - With the U.S. economy mired in a recession
and unemployment remaining high, states have massive budget deficits. As many
as 300,000 teachers face layoffs.
2010 - New Texas
social studies curriculum standards, described by some as “ultraconservative,”
spark controversy. Many fear they will affect textbooks and classrooms in other
states..
2011 - Sylvia Mendez, whose parents where lead plaintiffs in
the historic civil rights case, Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board
of Education, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 16th..
2011 - In spite of workers' protests and Democratic
legislators leaving the state to delay the vote, the Wisconsin
legislature passes a bill removing most collective-bargaining rights from many
public employees, including teachers. Governor Scott Walker signs the bill into
law on March 11. After legal challenges are exhausted, it is finally implemented in June. Similar
proposals are being considered in Ohio
and several other states.
2011 - President Barack Obama announces on September 23 that
the U.S. Department of Education is inviting each State educational agency to
request flexibility regarding some requirements of the No Child Left Behind
Act.
2011 - Alabama
becomes the first state "to require public schools to check the
immigration status" of students. Though the law does not require schools
to prohibit the enrollment nor report the names of undocumented children,
opponents nevertheless contend it is unconstitutional based on the Plyer v. Doe
ruling.
2012 - In his January 24th State of the Union Address,
President Barack Obama calls for requiring students to stay in school until
they graduate from high school or reach age 18. Twenty states and the District of Columbia
currently require attendance until age 18.
2012 - President Barack Obama announces on February 9 that
the applications of ten states seeking waivers from some of the requirements of
the No Child Left Behind law were approved. New Mexico's application is approved a few
days later, bringing the number of states receiving waivers to 11. An
additional 26 states applied for waivers in late February.
2012 - Speaking at an economic summit hosted by the Latino
Coalition on May 23, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warns of a
"National Education Emergency," blames teachers unions for blocking
needed education reform, and calls for expanding school choice by offering
vouchers to low-income students and those with disabilities.
2012 - On July 6, Washington
and Wisconsin
become the two most recent states to be granted waivers from some requirements
of the federal No Child left Behind law, bringing the total number of states
granted waivers to 26. Several more states have submitted waiver applications
and are waiting for approval.
2012 - As of August,
32 states and Washington, D.C. have been granted waivers from some No
Child Left Behind requirements. However, the waivers for eight states are
"conditional," meaning some aspects of their plans are still under
review.
2012 - On December 14, Adam Lanza, 20, kills his mother and
then invades Sandy Hook Elementary School where he kills 20 children and six
adults, including principal Dawn Hochsprung and psychologist Mary
Sherlachmaking, making this the second deadliest mass shooting by a single
person in U.S. history.
2013 - On January 11, the Washington Post reports that Seattle high school
teachers have refused to give the district-mandated Measures of Academy
Progress, joining a "growing grass-roots revolt against the excessive use
of standardized tests."
2013 - On May 22, the Chicago Board of Education votes to
close 50 schools, the largest mass closing in U.S. history. Mayor Rahm Emanuel
and CPS officials claim the closures are not only necessary to reduce costs,
but will also improve educational quality. However, Chicago teachers and other opponents say the
closures disproportionately affect low-income and minority students, but their
efforts to stop the closings, which included two lawsuits, were unsuccessful.
Other cities, including Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington,
D.C., have also recently closed
large numbers of public schools.
2013 - The Chicago
Teachers Union files its third lawsuit against the school closings on May 29.
2013 - The School
District of Philadelphia
announces on June 7 that it will cut nearly 4000 employees, including 676
teachers as well as many administrators and guidance counselors.
2013 - On Friday,
June 14 the Chicago Public Schools announce that they will be laying off 663
employees, including 420 teachers.
2013 - In the case of Fisher v. University of Texas, the U.S. Supreme rules on June 25 that
affirmative action is constitutional only if it is “narrowly tailored.” The
Court then sends the case back to the lower courts to determine if the University of Texas policy meets this standard.
